


Shattering

by SodiumChl0ride



Category: Unbroken (2014)
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Reflecting on life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-04
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-11-08 21:59:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11090775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SodiumChl0ride/pseuds/SodiumChl0ride
Summary: With only the churning waves and the rock of the rafts as company below his sleeping companions, the grief is almost too much to handle.





	Shattering

The guilt hit him like a bullet. Phillips was always a spiritual man, but never before had he prayed quite as extreme as now-- on his knees, head resting against the wet surface of the raft, words spoken so quickly that they were unintelligible to anybody but God and himself. 

It was his fault that the Green Hornet crashed. He was supposed to save them, but no,  _ no,  _ and now he was stuck on a raft with only his bombardier Louis Zamperini and his gunner Francis McNamara. Why couldn’t Cupernell have survived instead of himself? Or even Mitchell-- they weren’t responsible for what happened. He was the pilot, and since the plane went down under his control, he was supposed to save everybody.

Numb, he lifted his fingers up, pressing them to the stained fabric wrapped around his head. The noise that escaped his lips instinctively told him that it was probably worse than McNamara or Zamperini let on. That was fine though-- it was God’s way of saying that he was not going to get out of this unarmed. 

They were sleeping, tangled together on the raft opposite of him; but he wasn’t going to get any sleep for some hours now. There was too much to think about. They had no food, and no clean water. Louie was optimistic at best, calming down McNamara when he started thinking as much as Phillips was right now. He liked it better when they were sleeping, he supposed. It saved him the stress and the drama.

He carefully climbed over to join them in the second raft. Lodging himself between the two men, and pillowing his injury against the yellow inflated edge, Phillips let out a slow breath. Maybe he was just overthinking everything. Besides, how bad could this possibly get?


End file.
